A mother's heartbreak: Why was my daughter not saved when there were so many chances to stop her stalker?

By Helen Weathers

The glimpse of a mother and daughter linking arms in the street, or chatting over a coffee at a pavement cafe, is all it takes to overwhelm Tricia Bernal.

'The physical pain is indescribable when I see what I have lost,' says Tricia, whose 22-year-old daughter, Clare, was gunned down by a stalker in the designer department store Harvey Nichols in 2005.

'Clare was at that age where she was not only my daughter, but my best friend too, and I miss her so much, the hurt is like a sharp pain which catches you unawares.

When I see a bride I think "Clare will never get married" and when I see a baby I think "I'll never see Clare's baby".

I feel cheated, not only of a beautiful human being, but of our whole future.'

It is four years since two police officers knocked on Tricia's door in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, at a quarter to three in the morning to deliver the devastating news that Clare had been shot.

'I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I was completely numb with incomprehension,' says 54-year-old Tricia.

'But I knew immediately who had done it. I said to the officers "It's Michael, isn't it?" and they went quiet, then said: "Yes, it is."'

Clare's killer was Michael Pech, a 30-year-old former Slovakian soldier and security guard at Harvey Nichols, the Knightsbridge store where Clare worked as a beauty consultant.

Refusing to accept that their three-week relationship was over, Pech stalked, harassed and threatened Clare in an effort to make her take him back, after she ended the romance, disturbed by his obsessive behaviour.

At 7.45pm on September 13, 2005, he sneaked up behind her on the cosmetics counter where she worked and shot her in the back of the head. He then fired three further bullets into her face, before turning the gun on himself.

'My only comfort is that Clare did not see Michael creep up behind her and did not die in fear,' says Tricia, her voice breaking with emotion.

Gunned down: Clare was just 22 when she was killed by Michael Pech

'The first bullet, from behind, would have killed her instantly. She died with a smile on her face.'

But could Clare's murder have been prevented? Tricia thinks so. Pech had twice been arrested for stalking Clare and had made a direct threat to kill her.

Even as harassment charges were pending, and having already broken bail conditions to stay away from her, he had been able to travel back to his former home in the Czech Republic where he undertook firearms training and bought a Luger gun.

A junior officer, with just one day's training and overwhelmed with other cases, had been given responsibility for assessing the risk Pech posed to Clare, deciding it was 'low to medium'.

'After Pech was arrested, Clare and I thought she was safe, but we were terribly naive. We thought the professionals had taken over, something would be done and we could relax,' says Tricia.

'In reality, Pech was able to go abroad and then spend four-and-a-half months planning my daughter's murder.'

At the 2007 inquest into Clare's death, Westminster coroner Paul Knapman ruled that she was 'unlawfully killed', but said police could not have anticipated her death without the benefit of hindsight.

While noting the Metropolitan police had made a number of mistakes in handling the case, he insisted these shortcomings were not serious.

'Those comments still make me angry. As far as I'm concerned the whole inquest was a whitewash and a sham,' says Tricia, who now campaigns to improve the way stalking cases are dealt with by police.

'But what gave me strength after the inquest was the number of professionals, psychologists and police officers, who contacted me to say: "No, this isn't right, more could have been done."'

Along with Carol Faruqui and Stella Moore, whose daughters have also been killed by stalkers, Tricia has launched a charity and website called Protection Against Stalking.

Tricia has been a tireless campaigner, talking at conferences and working with police. Indeed, today, Clare's case is used by police forces in their training of officers dealing with stalking victims.

The Home Office has announced it will be working in conjunction with three charities, including Tricia's, to develop a National Stalking and Harassment Helpline, which Tricia hopes will help 'the next Clare' and save lives.

Her story will feature this evening on the ITV programme Tonight, along with an admission by police that 'they haven't been there in the past' for stalking victims, which led to 'tragic consequences'.

In the interview, Garry Shewan, Assistant Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police and spokesman on stalking, harassment and 'honour' crime, says: 'We know that in the past it's been hit and miss in terms of whether a victim of stalking has received great help or not so good help, but we're determined to make a difference from now on.'

Police investigating these crimes will now be using a questionnaire, designed to identify high-risk factors that may indicate a situation could be escalating.

All the information will be recorded and kept on file with the potential to be shared with other agencies, even if the victim decides not to proceed with charges. The thinking behind it is that the earlier the risk to a victim is identified, the better the outcome and the more protection the police can provide.

'Had this been in place four years ago,' says Tricia, 'my daughter might still be alive and Michael Pech might have received the help he so clearly needed.'

Michael Pech had been harassing Clare Bernal for months before her death

Tricia, a divorced chef with two sons aged 24 and 21, never met Michael Pech. But her daughter spoke to her about him often. Initially with excitement in the first flush of romance, and then - rapidly - with fear.

'Clare was a very shy, quiet, sweetnatured girl who was completely unaware of her own beauty. She was trusting, loving, emotional and had a rare innocence. She wasn't street-wise at all,' says Tricia. 'I remember her telling me about a security officer at Harvey Nichols, who would come up and chat to her. She told me she quite liked him and how they'd go into the park and chat.'

SHE recalls: 'Clare was flattered by his attention, but worried he was becoming too serious too soon, talking about spending the rest of their lives together after a matter of days. When she showed me a photograph of him, I told her I didn't like the look of him at all. His eyes were very hard. She also told me he was getting divorced from his wife in Slovakia, and I didn't like that either.'

Clare and Pech dated for just three weeks before he returned to Slovakia for a three-week, prearranged holiday. He insisted that Clare accompany him to Stansted Airport and made her promise to be there for him when he returned.

But within 24 hours of his return, the romance was over; ended by Clare who had tired of his controlling behaviour.

'After they came back from the airport, he insisted on staying at her flat in West Dulwich, saying he was too tired to go back to his own, so she reluctantly let him in - but her flatmates, who were also work colleagues, didn't like him at all and didn't want him there.

'I don't know what happened that night, I've never got the bottom of it, but by the next morning Clare told him she'd had enough, it was over and that he had to go. She took him to the train station, but he refused to get on the first train and then the second. He then followed her home, when she left, becoming abusive with her flatmates, who he blamed for coming between them.

'He stayed outside the flat for two hours before he finally left.'

As far as Clare was concerned, the relationship was over. But Pech kept hanging around her counter at work and when she refused to talk to him he would position himself so he could watch her in the mirrors dotted around the store.

'He was in total denial that she didn't love him,' says Tricia. 'She refused to take his calls, so he sent her text messages, first declaring his love, then threatening to commit suicide if she didn't take him back. One message said: "If I can't have you, no one else will."

'Clare was one of those people who hated to see others hurt, so in the end one of her colleagues told her "If you don't report him, I will", which her colleague did, because Clare didn't want to upset Pech and get him into trouble or antagonise him further. She was very worried about what people thought of her and didn't want his colleagues blaming her for getting him into trouble.'

Clare was working at Harvey Nichols in Knightsbridge on the day she was killed

Clare's colleagues reported him to the head of security, who suspended Pech when he disobeyed orders to remain on a different floor and stay away from Clare. For the next two weeks, he stepped up his campaign of harassment, waiting for Clare outside the store and once chasing her, shouting: 'You stupid little girl. You know you love me.'

He texted her several times a day and one of his text messages read: 'Why are you so cold to me? Is it because you are English?'

Clare told her mother she felt ill with worry and wasn't sleeping. She would text her friends to meet her at the train station after work, just in case Pech popped up unannounced.

Then, on March 30, he followed Clare to London Bridge station and boarded the train with her. When she threatened to report him, he put his face close to hers and said: 'If you report me, I'll kill you.'

At the urging of her colleagues, Clare gave a statement to police. Yet, despite police interviewing Pech for three hours, no charges were brought against him, although, after a verbal warning, bail conditions were in the the process of being set. Clare moved to a new flat in Dulwich Village. Within days she returned home to find him there; this despite him being escorted by police from Harvey Nichols the week before. He vanished by the time police arrived.

On April 10, Pech was finally arrested after turning up at Clare's flat again. But he wasn't fazed. Clare told her mother he'd smiled directly at her, holding his handcuffed arms in the air for her see, as he was led away.

'I think that was the moment we both realised just how sinister and obsessed he was. He had no fear of the police or respect for the law at all.

'But Clare and I completely underestimated the danger she was in. Once he'd been arrested, we never saw or heard from him again. We thought whatever the police and professionals were doing had solved the problem.

The harassment and stalking had stopped. We thought they had matters under control, but we were wrong.'

Charged with harassment and making threats to kill, Pech was remanded to Belmarsh prison. He was released on bail on April 19, with his case due to be heard on August 31. Clare had no idea he'd been released.

Tricia Bernal described her daughter as a 'beautiful human being'

On April 25 he returned to Slovakia where he obtained a gun certificate after undergoing firearms training. On July 20, he returned to London by coach, smuggling a Luger gun. On August 31 he appeared in court and pleaded guilty to harassment. The charge of making threats to kill was dropped, due to lack of evidence.

'Clare phoned me after the hearing and was filled with relief that Pech had pleaded guilty and she hadn't had to face him in court,' says Tricia. 'She told me: "I can put the whole thing behind me. Now I can get on with my life." She was so happy and I was so happy for her.

'She told me that Pech was due to be sentenced at the end of September and was likely to get community service or a fine. Clare was pleased with this, because she really didn't want to see him hurt or too heavily punished. She just wanted him to go away. She told me: "There's no reason for him to still be angry with me now."

'But, of course, he was still angry and I can see how it must have seemed to his deranged mind. He'd lost his job, was living in some awful bedsit and had lost this most beautiful, sweet-natured, loving girl. When he met Clare, he must really have thought all his Christmases had come at once.

'After his death, they found a poem he'd written about how he believed he and Clare were meant to be together. I believe that he thought if they couldn't be together in life, then they were going to be together in another life. Even now, I still can't quite believe this has happened and that Clare is no longer with us any more.'

Despite the new police initiative, Tricia says: 'We are very far behind countries such as Australia and America in terms of help for stalking victims. What we need are more Family Justice Centres where people can go for help and advice from professionals. There needs to be a multi-agency approach - with doctors, social workers and police - and victims should only need to tell their story once.

'Until now, stalking has come under the umbrella of domestic violence, but Pech never physically abused Clare, which is probably one of the reasons why he was considered low risk.'

There are two Family Justice Centres in Britain - in Croydon and Derby - with several more being set up, and Tricia believes such a centre could have saved Clare's life.

According to the biggest survey of stalking victims, in which 2,122 people aged between ten and 73 were questioned, just 21 per cent believed police were sufficiently aware of their needs and 80 per cent felt the police should be better trained to handle such cases.

The study, by Dr Lorraine Sheridan, a forensic psychologist working with the Network for Surviving Stalking, reveals that, on average, victims endure 35 instances of stalking behaviour before going to the police.

'When you are being stalked, it is like being watched by Big Brother all the time,' says Tricia. 'What makes me angry is that Clare was never given any choices, she had no way of protecting herself. She really only had her friends and family to turn to and we all underestimated the danger she was in.

'All I can do now is turn Clare's death into something positive. But even now, as I stand up at conferences talking about what happened and the lessons that can be learned, it will suddenly hit me and I'll think "This is my daughter I'm talking about" and the pain is so intense it takes my breath away.

'I'm doing this for Clare, but it's very hard. Sometimes, I almost convince myself she's away travelling, and one day she'll walk through the door and say: "Hello, Mum!" But that's just my way of coping.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1216578/Mothers-heartbreak-Why-daughter-saved-chances.html#ixzz0SNPEG2RX